AUDOUIN'S GULL. 65 



in Malta. In 1869 I found an individual, unnamed, in the Museum 

 of Palermo, and, recently, Dodcrlein announced tlie capture of two 

 adults in the harbour of that city in January, 1870, I saw also two 

 individuals taken in Liguria, one of which was preserved in the Civic 

 Museum of Geneva, and the other in the Museum of the University. 

 This Gull is also announced in the catalogue of Venetian birds, as 

 it appears on the faith of Contarini, nevertheless it would be 

 desirable to obtain further information. This species has been 

 observed on the coast of western Africa and Syria." 



This Gull feeds upon fish, molluscs, and Crustacea. It breeds 

 among the rocks, on the borders of the sea, and lays three or four 

 eggs, which, according to Temminck, vary in their colour from 

 yellowish white to a greenish grey, sprinkled with brown spots. It 

 is sometimes found quite white, or bluish, without spots. It is, in 

 fact, as Mr. Tristram writes me word, exactly like that of our 

 Lesser Black -backed Gull {Lanes fuscus.) 



A male specimen of this bird, kindly lent me by Lord Lilford, 

 being the bird alluded to in the above narrative, bears upon its 

 label the following information: — Larus Audoulnii. Male. Isola 

 di Toro, Sardinia, May 28th., 18T4. Legs and feet dark lead 

 grey; nails black. Beak coral red, with one black band. Iris 

 hazel. Palpebrae coral red. Pupil black. To this I add: — Length 

 twenty inches; from carpal joint to end of wing fifteen and three 

 quarters; tarsus two and two-fifths; middle toe two inches; beak 

 from gape three inches; breadth through thickest part three-fifths of 

 an inch. 



Plumage and colours. — Head, nape, throat, all the under parts 

 and tail pure white. Back and mantle delicate silver grey. Primaries 

 deep brown black; the first, which is the longest, tipped on its 

 inner edge, near the end, with a broad patch of white. In the 

 second and third two white tips to the feathers; the third, fourth, and 

 fifth, having much more white on the inner web, while the fifth 

 may be termed entirely white, marked with dark brown near the 

 end. The wings, when closed, display four or five square white patches, 

 the basal half of the shafts light coloured; secondaries and tertiaries 

 white. The wings, when closed, extend beyond the end of the tail 

 by one and a half inches. Shoulders white; under wing coverts light 

 silver grey. 



With regard to the number of dark black-brown bands which 



cross the beak, it will be seen that I have described Lord Lilford's 



bird with having one only, but on the lower mandible are the 



remains of a second, which I think I can easily trace across the upper 



VOL. V. . , K 



